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It feels like just yesterday that AMD brought in Rory Read to turn around its ailing fortunes, but today there's another changing of the guard. The chip designer has announced that chief operating officer Lisa Su is its new CEO, effective immediately; Read will stick around as an advisor until the end of the year. The company isn't going into detail about the reasons behind the shift, but it does say that Read has been planning a succession with the board of directors. It's an "ideal time" for Su to take the reins, the board's Bruce Clafin says.

Usually the only time we talk about Oracle is in relation to its battle with Google over Java and the use of related APIs in Android, but not today. At the age of 70, co-founder Larry Ellison is stepping down from the post of CEO and moving to a new post as Executive Chairman of the Board and CTO. Taking over the reins of the enterprise software company is the duo of Safra Catz and Mark Hurd. You'll recall Hurd as the former CEO of HP, who resigned from that company over a sexual harassment investigation and false expense reports, and then became the target of an (eventually resolved) lawsuit when he joined Oracle four years ago. His awkward exit resulted in collateral damage to HP acquisition Palm, and by extension webOS. The trio of Ellison, former CFO Catz and Hurd will share responsibilities going forward, with Ellison stating in the press release that the only difference is "Safra and Mark will now report to the Oracle Board rather than to me."

Bre Pettis has done more than most to bring 3D printing to the masses. But when MakerBot was bought up by industrial giant Stratasys it became clear that things were about to change. One of the first big changes is coming soon as Pettis, a founder of the consumer 3D print shop, is leaving his post as CEO to join his new parent company Stratasys. He won't be involved in the day to day running of MakerBot any more, but he'll still be instrumental in guiding its future. He'll just now have a part in directing the vision of Stratasys as well. In a statement CEO David Reis said, "We are excited about these promotions and pleased to continue the positive momentum that Stratasys and MakerBot have experienced and achieved." Of course that tells us nothing about how the two companies will continue to evolve or if they'll ever merge under one banner.

Today Mikael Hed announced he would be stepping down as CEO of Rovio and that former Nokia exec Pekka Rantala would be taking his place in 2015. The developer has quickly gone from being a company that no one had ever heard of to one of the biggest names in mobile gaming. How? Almost entirely on the strength of its flagship franchise: Angry Birds. The problem is, nearly five years on, the Angry Birds name just isn't enough any more. The developer continues to churn out new titles at a fairly regular clip, but many are simple rehashes of the standard formula it debuted in 2009 (see Angry Birds Star Wars, Transformers, Rio, Space, Friendsand Seasons). And with profits dropping off at an alarming rate the company is at something of a crossroads. In 2013 the company made less than half of what it raked in during 2012. If the company wants to avoid the fate of Zynga, which quickly fell apart after going public, it needs to change now before its problems become unfixable. Whether or not Rantala, who most recently was CEO at Finnish beverage company Hartwall, can save Rovio from the dustbin of history remains to be seen. But one thing is for sure, if he can stop just one more licensed Angry Birds game from being made, the world will be a better place.

He was Microsoft's 30th employee, its first business manager and CEO for over a decade. Now, after 34 years with the company, Steve Ballmer is leaving Microsoft behind. In a letter to Satya Nadella, Microsoft's new CEO, Ballmer explained that he's leaving the company's board of directors effective immediately. "I have become very busy," he explains. "I see a combination of Clippers, civic contribution, teaching and study taking up a lot of time." It's not a surprising development -- owning an NBA franchise is a pretty big responsibility, after all -- but it marks the end of Ballmer's decades-long influence over the company. Despite his departure, the former-CEO is still invested in the company's success, and spent most of the letter encouraging Nadella and giving advice.

Xiaomi's regular channeling of Apple -- from its stage presentations all the way to disguisingAperture's icon as a phone's camera -- has earned its CEO Lei Jun the "Steve Jobs of China" nickname. Or rather, "Lei Bu Si," a Chinese combination of "Lei" and "Jobs." It's also a double entendre -- something along the lines of "endless shocks" -- that mocks Xiaomi's aggressive marketing. It's no wonder Lei hates the comparison. Fortunately for Lei there's another Chinese CEO gunning for that title. Meet Luo Yonghao, an English teacher turned founder and CEO of smartphone startup, Smartisan, with designs on being the next great tech visionary.

There were murmurs that Sprint was about to shake up its leadership, and today it's official. The carrier has named Marcelo Claure, the head of wireless distributor Brightstar, as its new President and CEO. He'll take over from Dan Hesse on August 11th. The company doesn't have a direct explanation for the change, but it does allude to refocusing now that its attempt to buy T-Mobile has gone awry; while it would prefer "industry consolidation," it's only concerned with self-improvement in the short term. How Claure will fare isn't certain. He's known for his entrepreneurial skills and has been involved with Sprint's board for months, but this will be his first time running a provider. He'll have to get up to speed quickly if he wants to reverse the company's ailing fortunes.

Welcome to the happy Google search page. Where links to historical articles can be deleted at the request of cowards people with fragile reputations. Where the former boss of Merrill Lynch, Stan O'Neal, is a fresh, dynamic and highly employable banker, rather than a disgraced executive who contributed to the sub-prime lending crisis of 2007. Where truth-telling journalists like Robert Peston wake up to find that their articles have been cast into oblivion within the EU, thanks to a blanket ruling by a bunch of clueless lawyers the European Court of Justice. Where facts and opinions no longer count for anything if someone, somewhere doesn't like them.

(A list of other Google search terms that have so far been affected by the new "right to be forgotten" can be found here -- although in none of the cases do we have any information about who objected to them, or why.)

Update: Reuters and The Guardian are reporting that some links have been restored (not the one to the story about Stan O'Neal), although, as Danny Sullivan points out on Twitter, they may not have been pulled at all. The European Commission has also distanced itself from Google's takedown action, saying that the EU's ruling shouldn't allow people to "photoshop their lives."

If you pre-ordered Razer's new 14-inch Blade laptop the day it was announced, there's a good chance you still don't have it. Frustrated? Don't worry -- your voice has already been heard; Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan says he's sorry. "We suck at this," he said in a heartfelt Facebook post today. "I suck at this." Unfortunately, Razer has made a habit of underestimating customer demand, and Min's team is struggling to find a solution that won't keep customers waiting. "We've tried different things," he said. "We've tried doubling / tripling / quadrupling manufacturing capacity, we've ramped back to phasing in launches by geography... we've pushed back launch dates, and still we end up disappointing our customers."

We've got a feeling that Mark Zuckerberg will, regretfully, be unable to accept this particular foreign invitation -- especially after all the recent name-calling that's been coming out of Iran. Nevertheless, a court in the south of that country has reportedly ordered the Facebook CEO to attend a hearing to answer complaints over privacy, specifically regarding Instagram and WhatsApp. There have been calls for both services to be blocked in Tehran, but they're still operational for now, perhaps partly due to a degree of protection from more moderate forces within the country. The precise details of the court summons are hard to be sure of, because news of it comes not from the court itself, but from an official within the Basij militia -- a voluntary paramilitary force that is regularly called upon to protect Iran's theocracy from dissent. And frankly, that's exactly the sort of geo-political context that might further dissuade Zuckerberg's PA from scheduling an appointment.

Last week Mozilla appointed former CTO Brendan Eich as its new CEO, but the response to that move has centered on something other than its focus on mobile. In 2008 Eich donated $1,000 to support Proposition 8, a ban on gay marriage in California, and as a result a number of employees have called for him to step down. Today that protest extended to other websites, as The Verge points out Firefox users visiting the dating site OkCupid are greeted with the page shown above, saying it would "prefer that our users not use Mozilla software to access OkCupid." At the bottom it includes links to Google Chrome, Internet Exploder (natch), Opera and Safari as friendlier alternatives, above a link for users to bypass the page and continue browsing with Firefox.

Since Eich's appointment, Mozilla has posted severalstatements about its support for diversity, inclusiveness and marriage equality for LGBT couples, including one penned by the CEO himself. Three board members have also resigned from the foundation, although it says that's not related to the CEO choice. Mozilla says that OkCupid never reached out to it to "confirm facts" (the full statement from a spokesperson is included below) but so far is sticking to its previous responses -- we'll see if Eich's request for "the time to "show, not tell" is granted.

Update (4/2): CNET mentions that OkCupid has removed the notice, and the company says it plans to issue a statement "in the next few days."

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BrendanEichceoequalityfirefoxgay marriagemarriagemozillaproposition 8Mon, 31 Mar 2014 19:04:00 -040021|20860398http://www.engadget.com/2014/03/18/microsoft-is-announcing-an-intersection-of-cloud-and-mobile-com/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget&ncid=rss_semi
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How does Satya Nadella run a Microsoft press event? We're about to find out: the company's new CEO will is coming to San Francisco later this month to talk about "news focused on the intersection of cloud and mobile computing." The topic certainly plays to his strengths. Before taking the helm as the company's new chief executive, Nadella played a major role in launching Office 365, Microsoft's subscription and cloud-based Office platform. While that application is already accessible from mobile devices, native Android and iOS Office apps have reportedly been on Microsoft's roadmap for some time too, and we wouldn't be surprised if they surfaced at this event. Microsoft won't speak further on the specifics of the event, but we won't have to wait long -- Nadella takes the stage on March 27th.

Whatever you think of Apple's products, there's no denying that Tim Cook has played a large role in making them profitable, first as an operations executive and later in running the company. But just what kind of a leader is he? Thanks to an excerpt from Yukari Iwatani Kane's upcoming book Haunted Empire, we have a clearer picture of what makes Cook tick. He's both very meticulous and a motivator, according to Kane. While he's known for holding six-hour review meetings and chewing people out for minor slip-ups, he also inspires hard work and encourages a charitable, friendly atmosphere at 1 Infinite Loop. He's also characterized as relentless -- the sort who'd go straight to the office after a red-eye flight. The excerpt likely won't change your mind on Cook's strategy, but it's worth a read if you want to know what drives one of the technology industry's most distinctive CEOs.

Not that we had serious doubts about the Wall Street Journal's report, but it's nice to get confirmation of Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside's departure. Less than two years after taking over the position from Sanjay Jha, who ran the company before the Google acquisition, Woodside is stepping down to become the first COO of Dropbox. The move comes just weeks after the announcement that Lenovo would be taking Moto off of Google's hands. It also raises questions about the future direction of the brand which shifted its focus towards affordability and customization over the last year, even if Woodside assures that Motorola management "remains focused on our current strategy." Obviously there is still work to be done during the transition from one owner to another, so Jonathan Rosenberg who has been Senior Vice President of Product will be stepping in as COO of Motorola to work with the rest of the leadership team.

As Chinese phone maker Meizu approaches its eleventh anniversary come March 14th, its notoriously reclusive founder Jack Wong made a surprise return -- in front of cameras, no less -- to his company's Zhuhai headquarters this weekend as CEO. Wong, who is now 40 years old, has apparently avoided setting foot in his office for years -- he even used to leave home just once a month to get his haircut, and he only held meetings with just a handful of key employees, according to our sources. During yesterday's recorded Q&A session, the slightly brash yet charismatic exec confirmed this odd little fact, blaming a series of events several years ago that led to exhaustion. But now he's ready to go full time again, instead of just occasionally posting on his company's online forum and designing prototypes at home.

"I plan to lead everyone, lead Meizu, lead the whole team to make a new start, to a more extraordinary, more prosperous 10 years," Wong said in front of his employees.

Steve Ballmer couldn't change Microsoft fast enough. During his 13-year stint as CEO, the company failed to get in front of major technological developments. It struggled to keep pace with the likes of Apple and Google in mobile and search and saw lackluster adoption of its first round of tablets. Ballmer created a sluggish corporate culture that pitted employees against each other, and he wasn't moving fast enough to right his wrongs. It was time for him to move on.

On August 23rd, 2013, the 34-year Microsoft veteran announced that he would retire within the year. The company's board set out on a highly publicized five-month journey to find its next leader. Ballmer's Harvard classmate and Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, would join the committee to find a replacement who could follow through on its mission to become a devices and services business in an increasingly fast-paced industry. Over the next five months, the board of directors, led by John Thompson, would narrow its pool of more than 100 candidates to just a few. As time wore on, speculation escalated and outsiders like former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Ford CEO Alan Mulally emerged as frontrunners in the glacial race. Meanwhile, rumors pegged internal candidates like former Skype CEO Tony Bates and EVP of Cloud and Enterprise Satya Nadella as possible contenders.

All of that speculation came to an end today when the board appointed Nadella as the third CEO in the company's near 40-year history. Like Ballmer before him, Nadella is a company man, with more than two decades at Microsoft. He understands how the Microsoft of old works and has managed to lead its cloud and enterprise services to great success, but questions remain about his ability to lead the company into the future.

Microsoft has officially named Steve Ballmer's successor: Satya Nadella. Now the third CEO in the company's history, he most recently has led Redmond's efforts in the cloud and enterprise space. With 22 years at the company, Nadella is certainly not the outsider many predicted would take over the role. But the board, including co-founder Bill Gates himself, believe that he's just the man to lead Microsoft into the future. His success in pushing the platform-agnostic Office 365, in addition to both consumer-facing and enterprise cloud solutions, bodes well for a company who has seen its bread-and-butter products of Windows and Office struggle in the post PC world.

The naming of Nadella as CEO represents something of a return to its roots for Microsoft. While Gates ultimately proved to have solid business instincts, he was at heart a computer nerd (for lack of a better term). Ballmer, on the other hand, was a student of economics and an MBA dropout. Nadella received degrees in electrical engineering and computer science before eventually moving on to the University of Chicago's MBA program.

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breaking newsceomicrosoftSatyaNadellaTue, 04 Feb 2014 09:06:00 -050021|20822554http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/01/28/linden-lab-ceo-leaves-company/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Massively&ncid=rss_semi
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/01/28/linden-lab-ceo-leaves-company/http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/01/28/linden-lab-ceo-leaves-company/?utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Massively#commentsRod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab for the past three years, officially announced via Facebook that he has left the company. Humble has worked on both The Sims and EverQuest, pretty much exactly the two games that you would think could be mashed together into Second Life. Linden Lab has not issued a statement about Humble's replacement at this time.

In a statement on the move, Humble wished his former coworkers and customers the best of fortunes, stating that he was moving on to form a startup company to make "art, entertainment, and unusual things." Whether or not this will be another startup in the online gaming space or something entirely different remains to be seen.

Source: Gamasutra
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The Elite: Dangerous combat alpha was updated with support for 3-D monitors and the Oculus Rift gaming headset this week, and developers gave fans a look behind the scenes in a new development newsletter. Star Citizen's dogfighting module was also delayed in order to bring the level of polish up higher and integrate the combat with the existing hangar module.

League of Legends released its annual Snowdown update alongside a coincidentally named Showdown game mode that offers short 1v1 and 2v2 matches. Dota 2 officially removed its Steam activation queue and opened its doors to the public, and Valve put out a call for 3-D modelers to make new items themed on the Chinese New Year. Heroes of Newerth's patch 3.3 went live, introducing a new tactical item that can copy runes without consuming them. And SMITE revealed new Mayan god Chaac, a rain god with a lightning axe that's bigger than he is.

Diablo III officially opened pre-orders for its Reaper of Souls expansion; fansite Diablofans collected together another 50 legendary item screenshots from players on the public test realm. Path of Exile's patch 1.0.4 is due to launch today, adding the channeled Flameblast spell and support for private PvP duels. And Firefall developer Red 5 Studios sacked its CEO and founder Mark Kern this week, prompting several anonymous employees to reportedly come forward with stories of poor management behind the scenes.

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1v12v2action-mmoaction-rpgbattlenetblizzardblizzard-entertainmentbrabenceochaaccloud-imperiumcompetitive-gamingd3david-brabendiablodiablo-2diablo-3diablo-iidiablo-iiidogfighterdogfightingdominiondotadota-2e-sporte-sportseliteesportesportsf2pfantasyfeaturedfiredflameblastfounderfree-to-playfrontierfrontier-developmentsgodgodsgothic-fantasygrinding-geargrinding-gear-gamesheroes-of-newerthhonleague-of-legendslegendarieslegendarylegendary-itemslegendary-weaponslolmayamayanmobamodulemultiplayernewsnot-so-massivelynsmoculus-riftonline-multiplayerpath-of-exilepoepvpreaper-of-soulsred-5-studiosriotriot-gamesround-uprounduprpgs2s2-gamessandboxsci-fishowdownsmitesnowdownspring2014star-citizensteamStrifeterminatedthird-personvalvevideoMon, 23 Dec 2013 20:00:00 -0500319|20793677http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/12/20/rumor-mark-kern-removed-as-ceo-of-red-5-studios/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Massively&ncid=rss_semi
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According to a recent report from Gamefront, Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kernhas been terminated by the company's board of directors, effective immediately. Vice President of Development James Macauly has apparently sent an email to all employees informing them of the change in leadership, with this latest dismissal coming in the wake of several previous layoffs at the Firefall studio. No official statement has been issued to the public by the company at this time.

An anonymous source within the company has also spoken out against Kern in The Escapist, claiming that the CEO was frequently absent and arrived sporadically to hand down arbitrary decisions. How true these statements are cannot be confirmed, although the company does hold a low rating for employee satisfaction overall. We'll have more on the situation if and when a statement is issued regarding Kern's continued employment or lack thereof.

[Update: Red 5 Producer Matt DeWald has issued a formal statement on the now-confirmed rumors: "As of Thursday, December 19th, Mark Kern is no longer the Chief Executive Officer of Red 5 Studios. Mark founded Red 5 Studios in 2006 to provide exceptional game entertainment along with a world-class team of developers working on the MMO Shooter, Firefall. Red 5 Vice President of Development, James Macauley, will be moving into the role of acting CEO. The team at Red 5 continues work on Firefall and looks forward to all that we have to offer in 2014."]

Thompson said he and his colleagues have whittled down the list from "over 100 possible candidates" to "a group of about 20 individuals" (presumably including the aforementioned exec duo). He sadly didn't offer much insight into the discussions, which we can only guess involved both a very large dart board and (at least) a few bottles of carbonated mineral water.

It's all change at Acer at the moment. Just 15 days after CEO and Chairman JT Wang stepped down, the man set to replace him, Jim Wong, has also left the business. The changes come after Acer posted a huge loss and wrote-off value from sub-brands Gateway and Packard Bell, apparently sealing the fate of the executives. In the wake of the news, founder Stan Shih will come out of retirement and assume the role of chairman and interim president "without salary," with co-founder George Huang joining the new-look old-school management team. Following today's reshuffle, Shih will have to make day-to-day decisions for the company. While Wang and Wong may have taken the blame for Acer's recent poor performance, both will hang around "to ensure a smooth transition."

Bloomberg has spoken to three anonymous sources who claim to have knowledge of Stephen Elop's current mindset, and who say he'd consider making some radical moves if he become Microsoft's CEO. Now, bearing in mind there could be some seriously heavy axes being ground here, the details of what Elop might "consider" doing at Microsoft look almost designed to stir a fuss among investors and customers alike. For a start, the former Nokia CEO (and cost-slasher) would apparently contemplate selling off Microsoft's high-profile Xbox division, if he deemed the department to be less than critical to the company's overall strategy. Instead, the story goes, he'd focus the software giant's efforts on products and services related to its Office applications. Somewhat less scandalously, he'd allegedly also contemplate cancelling Bing. Some analysts have previously put forward the idea of dropping Xbox and Bing in order to raise Microsoft's profits in the short term, so these ideas haven't come out of nowhere, but they still seem slightly premature for a man who's only just got himself on the CEO shortlist.

While it's known that Stephen Elop of Nokia fame is being eyed by Microsoft to replace Steve Ballmer as CEO, and rumored that Ford CEO Alan Mulally is also a contender, it appears that both candidates are gaining steam. According to Reuters sources familiar with the matter, the company has narrowed its list of external candidates down to roughly five people, and the pair have made the cut. It's also said that a trio of internal folks are being considered, which includes former Skype honcho Tony Bates and enterprise head Satya Nadella. Although the pool of hopefuls has been pared down, the outlet's sources note that choosing that next chief could still take a few months. Considering Ballmer is happy to hang around Redmond for a while, don't expect the regime change to happen overnight.

For anyone who has followed Apple's history, John Sculley is a familiar figure. He was the CEO who famously ousted Steve Jobs from the company he co-founded in 1985; he championed the ill-fated Newton; and he eventually left Apple as its profits turned to losses in 1993.

Yesterday afternoon, The Globe and Mail published a report that has the potential to change that legacy. According to the piece by Steven Chase and Iain Marlow, the man who fired Steve Jobs is considering a bid for BlackBerry.